Heretofore, considerable effort has been expended to provide food products such as frozen or refrigerated pizzas and sandwiches for preparation by a consumer, utilizing conventional gas or electric heated ovens. More recently, with the increasing popularity of microwave ovens, attention has turned to providing consumers with kits and components for preparing dough-containing products such as frozen or refrigerated pizzas and sandwiches.
As has been detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,304, microwave ovens exhibit their own unique challenges when preparing frozen food products. For example, microwave ovens exhibit substantial temperature gradients or non-uniform heating. In addition, frozen dough-containing products have been found to exhibit a nonuniform temperature response to microwave radiation throughout their volume, during a typical heating cycle. As a result, portions of the food item melt or thaw before other portions and this results in localized accelerated heating due to the preferential absorption of microwave energy by liquids being irradiated. In addition, the microwave heating of the frozen food product can typically produce moisture that can gather at the surface of the food product, thus resulting in a soggy food product.
Various specialized packages have been developed for microwave heating of a food product. However, the existing packages have several drawbacks. Many of the existing packages require multiple components that must be arranged by the consumer in a specific configuration. Such packaging requires extra packaging materials and requires the consumer to follow several steps in assembling the food product and package for microwave heating.
Further, many of the existing packages do not provide for effective cool handling of the packaged food product upon removal from the microwave. The increased temperature of the packaged food product results in an increased burn risk and can pose challenges for a consumer when handling the packaged food item and when removing the packaged food item from the microwave.
In addition, many packages lack sufficient rigidity, support and constraint for the food product both during and after cooking. A lack of rigidity and support during microwave cooking can cause the food product support surface to sag, particularly when the food product is of a substantial size, which does not allow for maximum surface area contact between the food product and the cooking surface. A lack of lateral and transverse constraint following microwave cooking can result in a food product that is unstable and easily slidable from the package.
As a result of these and other conditions, further improvements in the preparation and packaging of dough-containing food products are being sought.